Letters: No evidence gay marriage threatens traditional marriage

Neil Steinberg’s conclusion, in his Monday column, that Archbishop Blase Cupich believes “we need marriage to help straight couples and gays wreck it, ineffably, by their participation” is probably correct. But straight couples have wrecked marriage pretty much on their own, given their penchant for unmarried births and high divorce rates. About 41 percent of births in the United States are to unmarried mothers. The number of traditional marriages is so low that in any given year there are about half as many divorces as marriages. Obviously, traditional marriage is not needed “for bringing children into the world and preserving the human race.”

Oh, and by the way, the 13 states that still ban same-sex marriage have an average unmarried birthrate of 43 percent. The 12 states that passed marriage equality have an average unmarried birthrate of 39 percent. Archbishop Cupich’s home state of Washington, which passed marriage equality, has an unmarried birthrate of only 32 percent.

Why not conclude that same-sex marriage helps traditional marriage and banning it hurts traditional marriage? Well, the most likely conclusion is that same-sex marriage neither helps nor hurts traditional marriage, and that is a victory for marriage equality.

Bob Barth, Edgewater

Let’s stop all killing

As a long-haired and bearded hippie teenager, I experienced the reality of police profiling. I also experienced the West Side riots after Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, and I think I understand the pain of Ferguson, Mo; New York and Baltimore. Recently, when people demonstrated in downtown Chicago, saying “Stop Police Killing,” one bystander commented, “shouldn’t it say, “Stop all Killing?” Am I naive to wonder why there is not a demonstration every time there is a gang killing? Far more young African-American males (and females) have been killed by gangs than by all the police in Chicago.

Bruce Sutchar, Hanover Park